The popularity of devices that provide mobile access to electronic information, such as handheld computers, pagers and data-enabled cellular telephones, has grown explosively over the past several years. Some of these devices can communicate over wireless network connections with any computer on a public network such as the Internet, while others have no network connectivity per se and instead communicate periodically with a single (possibly networked) machine via a dedicated wire. When using such mobile devices, it is desirable to have available information that can be organized according to the particular time and place in which the user is situated while interacting with the device.
Related patents include the following. U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,242 “ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING ADVERTISEMENT AT LOCAL COMPUTER RECEIVED FROM REMOTE SYSTEM WHILE THE LOCAL COMPUTER IS OFF-LINE THE REMOTE SYSTEM” discloses a business method for store-and-forward email provision commingled with an advertising system. Claims 35–40 describe a more general digital content delivery system with advertising, and specify a local computer being periodically connected to a network, but otherwise “off-line.” This reference does not disclose handheld devices that are either persistently on-line (e.g., via a wireless network connection) or persistently off-line (e.g., have no network connectivity).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,396 “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING BEHAVIORAL PROFILE OF A COMPUTER USER” discloses advertisements distributed over a network. U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,811 “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERING CUSTOMIZED ADVERTISEMENTS WITHIN INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS” discloses the dissemination of advertising over a network by a third party intermediating between a content provider and an end user. U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,392 “BANNER ADVERTISING DISPLAY SYSTEM AND METHOD WITH FREQUENCY OF ADVERTISEMENT CONTROL” discloses a campaign-based controlling mechanism. However, none of these references discloses handheld devices or geographical-temporal components.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,202 “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SYNCHRONIZING INFORMATION ON TWO DIFFERENT COMPUTER SYSTEMS” discloses a process for reconciling the contents of two files. U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,687 “GEO-ENABLED PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGER” discloses the attachment of geographic information to contact records in a handheld computer database. Neither of these references discloses advertising or the periodic updating of information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,769 “INTERACTIVE NETWORK DIRECTORY SERVICE WITH INTEGRATED MAPS AND DIRECTIONS” and U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,958 “DIRECTIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM” disclose location searches and direction generation for networked devices. U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,403 “TRAVEL PLAN PREPARING DEVICE” discloses a system for retrieving service facilities of interest in a particular geographic area. None of these references discloses off-line components, advertising components, annotation components or dynamic updating of information.
Related commercial products include the following. CitiKey provides searchable city guides for handheld devices. It does not support the specification of a current location and subsequent reorganization of search results based on that location. Further, it does not provide an automated system and method for dynamic incremental updates of information and client components on a handheld device.
CitySearch™, a Web-based city informational guide, and AvantGo™, a service provider allowing for the automated transmission of Web-based content to handheld devices, together provide a system which allows a user to receive periodically updated recommendation content for individual cities. The system is unable to organize information and present search results according to physical location, and does not support any searching by the user of a handheld device.
InfoSpace™ provides information infrastructure services for handheld devices. It does not support the specification of a current location and the subsequent reorganization of search results based on that location. Lonely Planet™/Concept Kitchen/CitiSync™ provides a system that allows a user to access information about individual cities on handheld devices and is able to display geographic information. It is unable to present search results according to a specific physical locale, although it is able to display geographic information. Aramis Communications' City Guides allow a user to access information about individual cities on handheld devices, but cannot present search results according to a specific physical locale. Zagat™/LandWare provides electronic city guides that categorize profiled destinations by neighborhood but that lack any interface based on the specific physical locale of the user. None of these three systems provides an automated system and method for dynamic incremental updates of information and client components on a handheld device. With the exception of InfoSpace™, none of the systems supports handheld devices with wireless network connectivity.
TrekWare™ provides interactive mapping software for handheld devices, but does not support the specification of a current location and subsequent reorganization of search results based on that location, does not provide an automated system and method for dynamic incremental updates of information and client components on the handheld device, and does not support arbitrary searches by the user.
Webraska Mobile Technologies S.A. provides mobile phone services that allow users to identify their location and receive automobile, subway, and pedestrian directions to nearby locations such as restaurants, hotels, gas stations, parking, post offices, and hospitals. Some services also provide real-time maps showing road conditions on the screen of the mobile phone. However, the system does not provide an automated system and method for dynamic incremental updates of information and client components on a handheld device.